San Antonio Tower & Hyatt Pics - 12/30/06

Mopacs · #1 Posted **Jan 2, 2007, 8:22 AM**

I paid a visit to San Antonio this past Saturday and had a chance to climb the Tower of the Americas for the first time since its reopening last summer. This afforded us some great views of the construction progress of the Hyatt CC and Staybridge hotels, and downtown & surrounding areas. Here are my shots and views from above:

The return of the Tower:

Revamped base of the tower, containing gift shops, a restaurant and a '4D" interactive theater

Heading up the Elevator

Towering above it all

Staybridge Hotel

Shots of the emerging Hyatt Grand

See ground-level shots at the end of this thread....

The "other" Hyatt

A game I did not get tickets for was underway as I took this shot

Riverwalk and Square

Anyone know the story on this fire? Smoke looms over Brooke Army Medical Center... ironically

More of Brooke, Ft Sam Houston, and Randolph Air Force Base in the distance (looking NE)

Downtown

Weston Centre and Fredricksburg Rd beyond

Northside skyline (410 @ San Pedro), and Hill Country rising beyond

Airport

NW San Antonio

Broadway

AT&T Center

Sunset from the lounge

Dinner with a view

Ground-level shots of the Hyatt

Staybridge from the ground

elmariachi · #2 Posted **Jan 2, 2007, 9:48 AM**

Those are some great pics. thanks for posting them.

JManc · #3 Posted **Jan 2, 2007, 12:23 PM**

HA! i was in that tower about an hour for the game started. your pic scame out much better than mine...it was still cloudy when i was up there.

you can see our car from this pic:

white spec far left of the pic in the parking lot behind the building with the arched windows.

KevinFromTexas · #4 Posted **Jan 2, 2007, 1:46 PM**

^ So what happened to JMan's Ranger?

Great pics. I love those zoomed in shots of the city. And man, check out those hills. Cool stuff.

Hopfully I'll be there in March. I the weather holds up for me. When I was there last year at that time it was cold and rainy.

Glad to see they finally washed the skylights at the Tower of the Americas. I'm looking forward to checking it out.

JACKinBeantown · #5 Posted **Jan 2, 2007, 3:22 PM**

Nice pics.

Complex01 · #6 Posted **Jan 2, 2007, 4:07 PM**

Nice updated pics. Hope you had a great time in SA...

Mikey711MN · #7 Posted **Jan 2, 2007, 4:14 PM**

Anyone have a good rendering of the Hyatt? All I've seen to this point is more of a drawing.

TXLove · #8 Posted **Jan 2, 2007, 8:49 PM**

great pics of a great city....thanks for posting

JManc · #9 Posted **Jan 2, 2007, 9:02 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

^ So what happened to JMan's Ranger?

at home...we rode up in my buddy's truck.

Mopacs · #10 Posted **Jan 3, 2007, 12:30 AM**

Thanks guys... had a great time in SA.

Jman... Funny how close our paths crossed! You're right, the cloud deck didnt clear until perhaps 15-20 minutes before we arrived at the tower.

As for my impressions of the revamped Tower.. Overall its a big improvement. Clean, new and cool again. I am not a huge fan of the large glass panels on the outdoor observation deck (too much glare, and some distortion), but if you're tall enough, you can peek your camera over the top of the glass. Could be worse... the CN Tower in Toronto has this thick, 'mesh' chain-link fence that even the smallest of camera lenses cant peek through.

sanantoniorocks21 · #11 Posted **Jan 3, 2007, 3:33 AM**

You've got a nice zoom on that camera lol... and I've never noticed the turquoise squares on the marriott rivercenter before

matttwentyeight · #12 Posted **Jan 4, 2007, 8:38 AM**

those are some fantastic shots of dt, but i am most impressed by how your camera's zoom caught the hills in the background behind the airport. i actually live north on 281 past that quarry that is north of 1604 in that photo. wow, that is crazy; i sorta felt like san antonio was more like austin in those north side photos, specifically speaking about topography. anyways, thanks buddy so much, that was a great spread.

KevinFromTexas · #13 Posted **Jan 4, 2007, 10:22 AM**

I really liked seeing all the mid-rises outside of downtown. I'd guess there's probably between 50 to 60 of them outside of downtown, maybe a few more. Not bad. That's about as many as Austin and Fort Worth have outside of their downtown's combined.

21bl0wed · #14 Posted **Jan 4, 2007, 5:43 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

I really liked seeing all the mid-rises outside of downtown. I'd guess there's probably between 50 to 60 of them outside of downtown, maybe a few more. Not bad. That's about as many as Austin and Fort Worth have outside of their downtown's combined.

Yea there is quite a few, and theres still a couple missing from the pics, including my fav building outside dt the 350'+ military residential building...I don't think the emporis database has a lot of our outside dt buildings listed...

Mopacs · #15 Posted **Jan 5, 2007, 1:19 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by 21bl0wed

Yea there is quite a few, and theres still a couple missing from the pics, including my fav building outside dt the 350'+ military residential building...I don't think the emporis database has a lot of our outside dt buildings listed...

But of course! Forgot to post this one...

Thanks again for the comments guys. The zoom (a compact 10x) really does capture the elevations of the surrounding hills... particularly beyond the Stone Oak area of far-north SA.

Here are a few more pics that I forgot to post:

Lower San Pedro ave:

View from the "601" lounge (601ft above the streets of SA)

Trinity University:

A few more Super Zoom-Crops:

NW San Antonio/Crossroads (you can spot the La Cantera Westin resort in the distance):

San Pedro @ Loop 410

The more industrial areas NE of downtown, along I-35. Splashtown waterpark is also visible here:

F18bkr · #16 Posted **Jan 5, 2007, 2:46 AM**

I was in that dome watching the eyes of texas breaking some bird's wings!

Nice shots btw!

MNMike · #17 Posted **Jan 5, 2007, 3:29 AM**

Why was it closed and for how long? I was up in that not too many years ago...Maybe 3 or 4? Nice pics! I will be in Texas on the 20th, save some good weather for me please.

F18bkr · #18 Posted **Jan 5, 2007, 4:40 AM**

It was being renovated for I dont know how long. I do know that Landry's restruants now owns it.

SAguy · #19 Posted **Jan 5, 2007, 4:59 AM**

Laundry's is leasing the restaurant for the next 10 years.

KevinFromTexas · #20 Posted **Jan 5, 2007, 10:42 AM**

I counted atleast 5 more highrises outside of downtown in those additional shots.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 21bl0wed

Yea there is quite a few, and theres still a couple missing from the pics, including my fav building outside dt the 350'+ military residential building...I don't think the emporis database has a lot of our outside dt buildings listed...

Is this the building you're talking about? This is the Towers on Park Lane. It's 368 feet tall with 23 floors. As far as I know this is the tallest building outside of downtown.

http://www.thetowerslife.com/